Loom picker



LOOM P I CKER Filed Dec. 6, 1965 INVENTORS GLENN W. BOWLING BY JOHN A. FERGUSSON ATTORNEY United States Patent M 3,332,450 LOOM PICKER Glenn W. Bowling and John A. Fergusson, Waynesville, N.C., assignors to Dayco Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Filed Dec. 6, 1955, Ser. No. 511,766 8 Claims. (Cl. 139-159) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A loom picker having a face block with alternating polyester film and fabric sheets, all of these sheets being parallel to the forward face of the picker.

This invention relates to loom pickers of the type which are utilized in throwing shuttles during weaving.

The art of weaving is a very old one and is normally accomplished by the use of a shuttle which carries the weft threads transversely of the warp threads to form a woven product. In modern looms, high-speed operation creates tremendous impact of the picker upon the shuttle, causing a high rate of wear on the picker and necessitating frequent replacement. The conventional pickers are formed of an outer member such as fabric, and the face block is often reinforced with additional members to minimize this wear and to extend the life of the product. Typical pickers are described in United States Patents Nos. 2,032,734 and 2,786,492.

Applicants have found that the picker wear can be considerably reduced by utilizing a picker having components which act in the manner of a shock absorber to reduce shock and vibration in the picker. At the same time, minimizing the shock will keep the shuttle boxing properly into the face of the picker, and will, therefore, provide considerable improvement in wear resistance. More specifically, applicants have solved this problem by alternating sheets of plastic material, preferably a polyester film, with fabric material which may be woven and subsequently coated or frictioned with rubber or similar elastomeric material. By alternating a number of plies of the film and fabric at right angles to the thrust of the shuttle, an exceedingly strong and wear-resistant picker results which has been found in actual tests to provide approximately three times the wear resistance of a conventional picker.

It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved loom picker which is wear resistant and has increased life.

It is another object of the invention to provide a picker which has improved shuttle boxing characteristics.

These and other objects of the invention will be further demonstrated in the following specification and drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the novel picker mounted on the picker stick.

FIGURE 2 is a cross section of the picker and stick taken along line 22 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a cross section of the picker and stick taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGURE 1 illustrates a wooden picker stick 11 of the conventional type upon which the picker is to be mounted. The picker itself is 3,332,453 Patented July 25, 1967 generally designated by reference numeral 10 and has an aperture 12 through which the stick is inserted. The reinforcing block 13 which represents the novel feature of this picker is made up of alternating sheets of plastic material 1 6 and a square-woven fabric 17, all approximately rectangular in shape and placed with their faces parallel to the front of the picker. The sheets 16 are made of plastic film of any of several materials, with the preferred material being a polyester film of the type formed by the condensation reaction betwen ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid, and commercially known as Mylar. This material is chosen because it has an extremely high strength and may be made in very thin gauge, in the neighborhood of .001 inch to .010 inch thick. The fabric is made of square-woven nylon or cotton which has been frictioned or coated on both sides with rubber. These layers or plies of material 16 and 17 are alternated and approximately 41 to 45 plies of each are utilized to form the face block as shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, after which they are compressed together to form a homogeneous mass. It has been found that this particular combination of polyester film and frictioned fabric results in a block which cushions the impact of the shuttle upon the picker and provides greater resistance to wear. This novel arrangement has produced a rather unexpected result, since it has been found that the laminated block thus fabricated is much more satisfactory than either material by itself; this occurs because fabric alone is not sufliciently wear resistant, while the film alone does not provide the necessary cushion effect. Tests have shown that a picker using this block provides approximately three times the wear of an all-fabric picker which is in common use.

As an alternative to forming the face block as described, it is possible to friction or coat the polyester film with rubber and use bare fabric; during the compression step, however, the same laminated effect results.

After the formation of the face block 13 as described, the block is wrapped by layers of rubber-impregnated fabric 1-8 as shown in the drawings in a manner similar to that more fully described in the above-referenced Patent No. 2,032,734. The resultant picker, therefore, consists of these layers of fabric wrapped around the face block and further wrapped in such a manner as to create the picker-receiving aperture 12, and then finally wrapped around the entire assembly. In the formation of this structure, therefore, certain of the layers form a separation between the face block and the picker stick aperture.

When this wrap-ping has been completed the entire assembly is then placed in a compresion mold, either singly or in multiple molds, and heat and pressure applied in order to vulcanize all of the components into a homogeneous mass. At this time, a recess 15 is molded into the forward face 14 of the picker in order to create a more accurate contact with the nose of the shuttle. This process is also more fully described in the above-referenced patents Nos. 2,032,734 and 2,786,492 and will not be discussed in further detail in the present application. When the picker is removed from the mold, therefore, it is in the completed form ready for use, but because of the novel concept described above provides far im-proved properties for the purpose for which it is designed.

While the present invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment, this is for purposes of illustration but not intended to limit the scope of the invention:

What is claimed is:

1. A loom picker comprising a forwardly positioned face block and a plurality of laminated fabric layers positioned around said face block and also forming a picker stick receiving passage rearwardly of said face block, said face block comprising alternating sheets of plastic film and fabric.

2. The picker of claim 1 in which said fabric sheets have a coating of elastomeric material on at least one surface.

3. The picker of claim 1 in which said plastic film is polyester.

4. The picker of claim 1 in which all of said sheets are parallel to the forward face of the picker.

5. The picker of claim 1 in which all of said sheets are laminated together.

6. The picker of claim 1 in which said fabric is nylon.

7. The picker of claim 1 in which said fabric is cotton.

8. A loom picker comprising a forwardly positioned face block and a plurality of laminated fabric layers positioned around said face block and also forming a picker stick receiving passage rearwardly of said face block; said face block comprising alternating polyester sheets and fabric sheets having a coating of elastomeric material on at least one surface, all of said sheets being parallel to the forward face of the picker and laminated together.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,149,568 3/1939 Bacon 139159 2,325,187 7/1943 Lewis 13915-9 2,488,025 1 1/ 1949 Nassimbene 139159 2,534,203 12/1950 Moe 139159 2,564,424 8/1951 Chadbourne 139160 2,786,492 3/1957 West 139-159 2,961,365 11/1960 Sroog 161-214 FOREIGN PATENTS 245,132 12/ 1959 Australia.

708,122 4/ 1954 Great Britain.

717,145 10/ 1954 Great Britain.

735,246 8/ 1955 Great Britain.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner.

I. KEE CHI, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A LOOM PICKER COMPRISING A FORWARDLY POSITIONED FACE BLOCK AND A PLURALITY OF LAMINATED FABRIC LAYERS POSITIONED AROUND SAID FACE BLOCK AND ALSO FORMING A PICKER STICK RECEIVING PASSAGE REARWARDLY OF SAID FACE BLOCK, SAID FACE BLOCK COMPRISING ALTERNATING SHEETS OF PLASTIC FILM AND FABRIC. 